NAICS 6115Industry group · 4-digitlocal market2 market records

Technical and trade schools

SoftwareCourse Creation & Certification Platforms

This industry group comprises establishments primarily engaged in providing vocational and technical training in a variety of technical subjects and trades. The training often leads to non-academic certification. Vocational correspondence schools are also included. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA
872
with employees
Under 10 employeesA
64%
most common size: 1–4
Establishments · USA
9,028
Employment · USA
110,746
12 per establishment
Payroll · USA
$5.7B
$52k per employee
01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–435841%
5–919723%
10–1913716%
20–4911013%
50–99435%
100–199212%
200–49961%
500+0—

Of 872 Canadian establishments with employees, 64% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario30235%
British Columbia18621%
Quebec16619%
Alberta10312%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA
Educational Services, US · opened 2020
83.5%
1 year
70.3%
3 years
58.2%
5 years
43.1%
10 years
opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 611, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

local competitionmedium capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 611 Educational services

Public education is not a market. Private career colleges, tutoring and skills instruction are, with accreditation and student-loan eligibility as the real barriers.

Who sets the price
Public funding for the core system; the operator for private and vocational training.
The software it runs on
Student information and learning management systems; booking and billing for private instruction.
03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 611510
Private Trade School OperationOne thing must be true
binding constraint: entry cost + regulatory drag

Provincial career-training regulators set the approval, the tuition-protection bonding and the outcome reporting, and student visa policy has repeatedly reset international enrolment — the revenue line most private colleges were built on — with little notice. Approval precedes enrolment by a year or more. The course-delivery software above this code is screened separately at 6115.

NAICS 6115105 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →
04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Vertical softwareScreened
Course Creation & Certification PlatformsOne thing must be true
binding constraint: growth quality
Incumbent Kajabi and Thinkific (Canadian — Vancouver)

Seat growth is real and revenue retention is not — the buyer is a solo creator whose business fails at a high rate, so gross adds are consumed by churn of the customer's business rather than of the product. Moodle sets a zero price floor for institutions and Kajabi and Thinkific have already taken the prosumer tier. Sourced update: the only public comparable in this category, Thinkific, turns over $73.2M with ARR of $61M growing 5%. That is the size of the prize for a listed leader — the ceiling is now a sourced figure rather than an assertion.

NAICS 61154 vendors named3 sourced figuresOpen →

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

ATSCLMCMSCNAPP & Cloud Security Posture ManagementCorporate LMS & Training ManagementCPQCRMDAMDMSEAMEOR & AORERPExpense & Corporate Spend ManagementGRC & Compliance AutomationHRMKnowledge Management & Enterprise SearchLXPProcurement & Spend ManagementProject Management SoftwareRevenue Intelligence & RevOpsSales Engagement & EnablementSales Intelligence & B2B Contact DataTeam Chat & Instant Messaging (incl. web chat)WFMWorkflow Automation
05

Companies in this industry · 11

Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.

CompanyFiled underRevenueRank
Universal Technical InstituteNYSE:UTITechnical and trade schools611510$836M1/4
Thinkific LabsPrivateTechnical and trade schools6115$73M1/7
CDI College, Herzing, triOSPrivateTechnical and trade schools611510—2/4
Circle Internet (USDC)PrivateTechnical and trade schools6115—2/7
Eastern, Academy of LearningPrivateTechnical and trade schools611510—3/4
KajabiPrivateTechnical and trade schools6115—3/7
LearnWorldsPrivateTechnical and trade schools6115—4/7
Lincoln TechNASDAQ:LINCTechnical and trade schools611510—4/4
Open edXPrivateTechnical and trade schools6115—5/7
PodiaPrivateTechnical and trade schools6115—6/7
teach:ablePrivateTechnical and trade schools6115—7/7
06

Who works here

The occupations employed in Educational services, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Tagged to this industry

College and other vocational instructors

Concentrated in this sectorA

Secondary, elementary and kindergarten school teachers One industry 99.3%
Student monitors, crossing guards and related occupations One industry 98.7%
Managers in education One industry 96.9%
Assisting occupations in education One industry 95.6%
University professors and post-secondary assistants One industry 94.9%
College and other vocational instructors One industry 72.4%
Educational and employment counsellors Mostly one sector 65%
Technical occupations in libraries and public archives Mostly one sector 56.3%
Athletes, coaches, referees and related occupations Mostly one sector 30.8%
Program leaders and instructors in recreation, sport and fitness Mostly one sector 20.4%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 11.6%
Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 8.8%
Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 7.6%
Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 5.2%
Other technical trades Across the economy 4.4%
Building maintenance installers, servicers and repairers Across the economy 4.3%
Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 3%
Administrative services managers Across the economy 2.9%
Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 2.5%
Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 2.4%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

07

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 6115, and 2 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
61151Technical and trade schools872Private Trade School Operation

Alongside it, under 611 Educational services

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
6111Elementary and secondary schools2,171K-12 Student Information Systems
6112Community colleges and C.E.G.E.P.s506Public College Operation
6113Universities237Alumni Relations & Advancement SoftwareHigher-Ed Student Information & Learning Management
6114Business schools and computer and management training1,280Corporate & IT Training
6116Other schools and instruction8,995Driving, Music & Skills Instruction
6117Educational support services1,423Tutoring & Coaching Business Software